Artist talk with
Julien Saudubray
'watching #18', 2021
Oil on canvas
200x160cm
Tell us about yourself.
I have been studying in the fine art school in Paris and got my diploma in 2012. We left with some friends back in the time and decided to move in Brussels , where I still live.
Where did your passion for art begin?
I have been practicing painting since a long time… I have to say, I was doing drawings very early as a kid , copying every pictures I could…That was my training for later :)
How would you describe your work to someone?
Quite a difficult question… I would say that the work focuses on stratifications of colors and reveals the interrogations of what is a strong gesture or not. I try to put everything on the same level, good lines or errors, it’s finally really about the process of painting more than creating an image.
'watching #08', 2021
Oil on canvas
200x160cm
What are you currently working on?
I am working on the watching series. A pattern that looks like the repletion of eyes on top of each others. As I said before this motif is more a pretext but I try to get exhausted with it to make something new happened. The question beyond this is more how the repetition of something let you escape from the subject and make you able to focus on physical aspect of the matter. I mean each reaction of the paint becomes an event all the time.
'sculpture #3', 2021
Oil and, dry pastel on wood
13 x 31 x 2,5 cm
When you start a new work or project, do you plan what you’re going to create or do you improvise?
Each new painting is a new world to experiment , you have to forget what you already know. Even if after a long time of practice you have your conscious and unconscious painter tricks , you have to force yourself to be as naive as possible when you start.
Can you highlight some of your influences and discuss how your influences have made an impact on you and your practice?
There are a lot of influences especially when you’re able to see pretty much everything on the web now. But I would say that some painters I still like are Kippenberger, phillip Guston, Gerard Gasiorowski to mention just a few. It’s not directly about the painting but more their approach of it in a conceptual way that was very striking for me. Especially the way they all try to challenge codes of painting.
'watching #15', 2021
Oil on canvas
200x160cm
'watching #12', 2021
Oil on canvas
130x100cm
What are your plans for the remainder of this year?
I am now preparing the art fait in Antwerp and the next solo show in January in Paris with Charlotte Ketabi, at her new space called Kebabi project.